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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with hare, beef, ham, carrot, onion, herbs, pepper, flour, port wine, bread, salt, cayenne, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Skin and gut the hare, saving the liver and as much blood as possible.

  2. Cut the hare into pieces and place it in a large pot with the other ingredients.

Simmer and finish

  1. Simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Once the prime joints of the hare are cooked, remove them from the pot.

  3. Strain the soup through a sieve, returning the best parts of the hare to the soup.

  4. Serve the soup warm.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the main meat and rich flavour that gives the soup its body.
Lean gravy beef
Adds meaty flavour and gelatin to enrich the broth during long simmering.
Onions
Build savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and release their sugars.
Browned flour
Adds colour and a toasted flavour, and lightly thickens the soup.
French rolls
Their crumb thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Port wine
Adds acidity and sweetness that round out the savory, rich flavours.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue slowly break down into gelatin, giving body and tenderness. A hard boil toughens meat and makes the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, carrot, pepper, flour, port wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, pepper, flour, port wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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